The present invention relates generally to the field of gas-fired cooking devices, and specifically to a gas-fired cooking device that includes a heat bank to provide a more uniformly heated cooking surface.
Gas cooking devices, such as gas-fired griddles, commonly utilize multiple burners located in various locations beneath the heated surface. Air and fuel, such as natural gas, propane, or the like, are provided to the burners, which bum the fuel to create hot combustion gases. Because each individual burner provides hot combustion gases to a limited area, the heated surface may develop hot and cold zones. For instance, hot zones typically develop directly over each burner and cool zones develop between the burners. Such uneven heating may lead to undesirable cooking results. As such, there is a need for an apparatus that combusts gas in such a way as to provide a more uniformly heated surface, resulting in improved cooking performance.
The present invention provides a more uniform heating of a griddle surface of a gas-fired cooking device. A plurality of heating chambers are disposed below the griddle surface and include a lower zone and an upper zone. Each of the heating chambers is heated by at least one naturally fed gas burner generally disposed in the corresponding lower zone. The gas burners generate hot combustion gases, a portion of which rise into the corresponding upper zone disposed between the lower zone and griddle surface associated with each heating chamber. The upper zones have sidewalls and downwardly extending rear flow-restricting walls, or dams, that cooperate to create a zone of relatively stagnant flow beneath the griddle surface. The relatively low average front-to-back flow rates within the upper zones allow a more uniform layer of hot combustion gases to be formed along the underside of the griddle surface, thereby more evenly delivering heat to the griddle surface. In some embodiments, the vertical depth of the upper zones is deliberately varied, from deeper to thinner moving laterally in toward the center of the griddle surface. There may be two or more heating chambers.